Maintain your chart data, or order a new chart!
Many mariners who use full-size NOAA paper charts do not fully understand how to keep their charts up to date. The fact is, NOAA performs research continually in oceans, lakes and rivers, discovering changes to depths, contours, navigation aids and much more, and it posts these changes on its website. These changes, called "Notices to Mariners", are constant and numerous – often dozens of changes within a several month period to many, if not most, of NOAA's 1,100 nautical charts. But how does the recreational mariner know about (and act on), these critical changes, many of which are critical to safe sailing?
Changes must be "recorded" by the mariner, onto existing NOAA charts
If sailors do not have access to, and record, the latest updates – which include changes in aids to navigation, lights, bridges, cables, pipelines, wrecks, obstructions, waterway operations and more – they may not be sailing safe. If mariners use charts that are several months (or years!) old but the charts have not been "updated", they need to pay close attention to the changes that NOAA has advised (maybe better yet, obtain a new chart!)
NOAA’s "Notice to Mariners"
Each week the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) issues the Notice to Mariners (NTMs) for ocean-going vessels, providing timely marine safety information for the correction of nautical charts and NOAA publications (the US Coast Pilot, the USCG lighthouse list.) Mariners can review the Notice to Mariners at http://www.nga.mil/portal/site/maritime/
NOAA’s "Local" Notice to Mariners
The nine district U.S. Coast Guard offices issue the Local Notice to Mariners (LNMs) each week, applicable to all vessels. LNMs provide timely marine safety information including the correction of nautical charts, the US Coast Pilot and the USCG lighthouse list. The list also pertains to aids to navigation, lights, bridges, cables, pipelines, wrecks, obstructions, Federal Waterways, waterway operations and dangers to navigation. LNMs are published at http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/lnm/default.htm
Mariners must "correct" their charts to keep them up to date
Again, many mariners do not realize that they need to pay attention to these NOAA "updates" and manually update relevant information onto their paper charts. If done regularly, it's not a daunting task, but if you haven't updated your chart in several months, it's best to get a whole new chart. Now, "print on demand" NOAA charts (printed only after you order) are available, and they're always up to date at the time of printing (see last paragraph for details).
NOAA chart Editions
Whereas the "Notices to Mariners" can be viewed on NOAA's website, meaning mariners must manually update their paper charts, NOAA does provide a whole new "Edition" of a chart as it deems necessary. A new Edition brings a NOAA nautical chart up to date for all chartable information available to NOAA, including hydrography, shoreline and marine safety information published in the "Notices". Plus, NOAA includes some minor changes which make the chart more useful. About 250 new editions are issued per year, with the time between new editions ranging from every six months to several years, depending upon the chart. The status of new editions is published at http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/dole.htm
NOAA partners with "on demand" printer for fast delivery of up-to-date charts
NOAA has partnered with OceanGrafix , an official NOAA chart printer with dozens of agents across the U.S. and beyond, to ensure that charts printed through OceanGrafix always contain the latest Notice to Mariner, Local Notice to Mariner and Edition corrections. Since NOAA’s update information is downloaded daily to OceanGrafix, and since OceanGrafix only prints “on demand” (meaning only when you order), these charts are always up to date when printed. Many OceanGrafix agents have dedicated OceanGrafix printers on site, for while-you-wait printing. OceanGrafix can print virtually every NOAA chart – more than 1,100 in total.
